This invention relates to mobile seed cleaning apparatus and relates particularly to apparatus for use in cleaning grain such as wheat, barely, oat, rice, sorghum, oilseed such as rape, sunflower linseed, and other seed such as lupins, peas, soybean and all other seeds which are grown for commercial purposes.
Harvested seed is generally impure in that it contains dirt, seed of undesired crop or other plants, improperly formed seeds, husks and the like. As such impurities affect the quality, and therefore the price, of the harvested crop it is usual for the seed to be cleaned and/or separated. Separation is required where two or more crops are grown and harvested together and it is necessary to separate one from the other for marketing or other use.
Before the present invention, it has been the usual practice for harvested crop to be transported to a storage area at which is located one form or another of a cleaning and/or separating equipment. Such equipment may comprise vibrating sieves, centrifugal separators, air separators, pocket cylinders and the like.
While such apparatus is relatively effective at a silo or other storage area, its use requires the harvested seed to be transported to the storage area where it can be treated. In many cases, however, such transportation of the seed is undesirable and unnecessary, particularly if the seed is not to be stored at the storage area. This may be the case where, for example, the seed is to be re-used by the farmer or is to be bagged and/or otherwise sold separately. The transportation of the seed to the storage area therefore becomes an unnecessary and undesirable handling involving additional cost for the farmer.